Trip report - Surprising the Folks

My wife gave me the weekend off to go to NYC last weekend to surprise my parents who were on the tail end of their vacation there as well.

Background – years ago, when I was a teenager, my dad had business in NYC twice a year. He started taking us kids, one at a time. When my time came, I HATED New York, hated the hotel, in short, I was a complete sh*t. A teenager, you might say. One thing I remember was sitting at the bar in Sardi’s (dad was kind of cool come to think of it) and I saw an actor from the movie Animal House and I thought that was really something.

Over the years have been to NY several times and now it is my favorite destination. How things change…

So this trip was in part to try to make up for putting my dad through the trip-from-h*ll way back then.

Flash forward, its last Friday afternoon, I’m in the cab from Newark to downtown, approaching Holland Tunnel. I ring up mom and pop (they’re in their room, I know their routine), tell them I’m having something delivered, don’t go anywhere for an hour. Get to my hotel (they upgrade me to corner room, 54th floor looking at SOL and east river my gawd what a view). Folks are at Marriott Financial Ctr, a few blocks away. I unload my bags, scamper the few blocks, manage to mangle the directions but finally, get to their floor, call ‘em up outside their room, “the delivery guy can’t find your room what’s the number?”, then knock on the door, Surprise ! Spend the next 20 minutes explaining, no, nothing has happened, I’m just visiting for fun…you are supposed to be happy to see me, this is a fun thing, see ?

So we take a cab to, guess where, Sardi’s bar, knock back a few margaritas, chat with some locals, guy sitting next to me was a Navy guy (subs, cold war years), as was Dad (destroyer, WWII) , so they chat about that which was fun.

Then to Ristorante DeGrezia, 57th street, terrific little Italian place, I wrote a review if you want to take a look. Salmon with mustard sauce, my oh my.

Drop the folks off, I head back to my hotel, reasonable hour, 10ish. I figure I’ll have one drink at the bar before heading to bed. Now, the after dinner drink I like is a Rusty Nail, scotch and drambuie. If you ask me, one is plenty. I strike up a conversation with an English fellow overnighting on his way home. Three rusty nails later, I head to bed.

Two things I learned are

1. Three rusty nails will make you do things you ordinarily would have enough sense not to, such as take pictures of the Statue of Liberty out the window at night

2. There is a bit of a morning-sun issue when you are fifty floors up in NYC with an easterly view, and you had two-too-many rusty nails the night before…

Anyway, Saturday morning, Sis comes in from new jersey. My folks have a food-walk-tour thing to go on, so sis and I go to spotted pig. The staff spent more time chatting and folding napkins than taking care of our order (appetizer comes out AFTER the entrée) but the blue-cheese-burger was wonderful as were sis’s chorizo %26amp; eggs. We then walk around Soho, visit the wonderful delis (Murray’s), stop at a coffee shop where we spot the actor Ron Livingston. I happen to like him, he’s sort of a gen-x Walter Matthau with the deadpan face and crooked eyes, so it was a kick to see him in person.

That night we head uptown to see Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. Our cabbie elects to drive up one of the congested avenues, a gut-wrenching ordeal when you have an 8 o’clock show and it is 7:46 and you’re making maybe three blocks every five minutes. Around 40th we notice people jumping out of cabs mid-street, which is what we end up doing. I have to say, Dad, at 80+, moved pretty darn quick down the sidewalk. The play was a bit like Murder She Wrote but it was fun to see DHP. It got a little tedious at times, some forced jokes (although a lot of the audience was laughing so maybe it was just me), but there is an old-style dance number with DHP and the female lead that’s pretty fun. Good costumes and sets which is for me half the fun of broadway shows.

Then to dinner at Sardi’s (yes a little too much Sardi’s but I don’t think anyone wanted to put a lot of thought in to where to eat). I reviewed it as well. Lets just say, everyone else’s plates looked way better than mine. Really, other diner’s plates looked terrific, mine was this watery pasta mess, stick to the steaks and seafood.

Sunday morning, brunch at a sidewalk café in Soho, and then shop the sidewalk vendors for a while. Head to midtown noonish, the folks are seeing Spamalot so we part ways at the theater, mom gets all teary but then, she always does, New York or elsewhere. I have a couple of hours to kill before heading to Newark. Stop at the apple store to check out the iphone, putz around midtown, when I realize I have just enough time to get back to Soho to get some cheeses or whatever from the delis. Have a shrimp cocktail at Fish – impressive – back to the hotel to collect my bags and head back home. Why is it on Friday you think you have all the time in the world, and on Sunday you wonder where the time went…

NYWhiz if you read this I did NOT make it to Waldorf Astoria bar, shame on me. Queensblvd, thanks for the heads up on Millenium Hilton, fit the bill just right.

Lessons learned

1. Staying downtown was a change, and enjoyable, but required a LOT of taxi-time to get to midtown (traffic was horrendous). Subway is nearby but, on the weekend, with scarcely 48 hours in town, who wants to mess with subways. Turns out, they might have been faster than the cabs, what with the awful traffic.

2. Spent a lot of time Soho/Village/Tribeca area, very enjoyable change from the mid-town madness. Next time I very well might look for a hotel in these areas.

3. I don’t think I will ever get tired of the little New York neighborhood restaurants such as Ristorante DeGrezia…

Trip report - Surprising the Folks

Ha, parents did not seem so glad to see you - LOL.

Thanks for the report, very interesting, and I agree about those great neighborhood restaurants and shops.

So folks, don%26#39;t bemoan the fact that a lot of them are closing, we have to patronize them, and hope that their landlords don%26#39;t get too piggish when the lease expires.

And, frankly, you are better off with the subways, will get you where you want to go (most of the time).

Trip report - Surprising the Folks

Liked your report and it was nice gesture to surprise your parents but I can hear your parents:

What are you doing here, where%26#39;s the wife, is there something wrong? You spent all that money just to be here a couple of days?

I was wondering how you managed to surprise your parents--great thinking on your part! And, yes, the Millenium is a great hotel. In May, we had a corner room on the 46th floor that faced north--what a view! Glad you enjoyed your visit.

What a great short trip,and surprise for your parents---lol at NYC10025%26#39;s comments, so true.

Brilliant. What a fun (if short) trip. I enjoyed reading about it so thanks for sharing with us.

Where did you come from?

Watch out for those Rusty Nails!

How nice that you got to surprise your parents. Thanks for sharing.

Larry: I was in town this weekend and stayed downtown as well. We took at cab to midtown once then stuck with the subways. On Sunday 6th Ave was closed for a street fair. Traffic was a nightmare. The subways were air conditioned and came quickly.

I had a great experience staying at the Hampton Inn at the Seaport. I%26#39;ve never stayed there before and was looking for something inexpensive. What a find! Clean beautiful room, located close to the subway (a few blocks away on Fulton) and what service. The bellman was so friendly and Berkis and Carmen, two women who worked at the front desk, could not have been nicer. They remembered my name and addressed me each time I came and went. Believe it or not, the service was similar to that I have received at the Four Seasons Philadelphia and the JW Marriott Cancun. Amazing and all for $199.00. Who knew!

I too love that you had to explain to your parents that all is well with the world when you showed up. That is just too funny. It really can be hard to give a gift to a parent, can%26#39;t it!

Thanks for the great report. Moms

LarryD - Wonderful! Congratulations on a succesful surprise - if not a 100% successful reaction! ;o) (FYI, for the first 30 minutes, I was also more puzzled and confused than excited by my spouse%26#39;s recent surprise party for me. But, you gotta appreciate the execution of such machinations. Excellent!)

Glad you enjoyed the Millenium Hilton dowtown. Those high corner rooms are unbelievable. Could you really open your window up there to take photos?!? Whoa.

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I’m glad you enjoyed my little report. It is fun to share.

Nycgirl – you know, at DeGrezia, on a Friday night we were the ONLY people in the main dining room. We had the maitre’d and 2 or 3 waiters hovering about. Pop kept saying “geez there’s nobody here” and I’d say, Shhhh!, and finally he just couldn’t help himself, had to blab to the maitre’d, “Where is everybody, this place is empty !” which I imagine the maitre%26#39;d was painfully aware of. Parents ... can’t take ‘em anywhere.

Nyc10025 – you did in fact hit the proverbial nail on the head. That was about how it went. Pretty much exactly.

Suefee- you didn’t think I could do it didja. I envy your north-facing view, what a delight that must have been. Although, can’t complain about mine, since I like boats so much.

Ange – my folks live in Corpus Christi TX, they went first to Chicago, great lakes cruise of some type, then to NYC, then to my Sis’s in Jersey, then home. Me, I flew from Dallas.

Bettina – ahem. I have noticed, when the subject turns to libations, you always have seem to perk up a bit. ; ) As do I . Thanks for reading.

Momstravel – thanks for the heads up on the Hampton Inn. I happen to like Hampton Inns, now that I know there’s one in NY I will file it away for future reference.

QB – like the way you put that – not a 100% reaction – that’s funny. I must clarify, I wasn’t leaning OUT the window. My gawd they’d be scraping me off the sidewalk ! I simply meant, taking pictures at night, THROUGH the window – they came out pretty black. I guess I figured it was worth a try.

Thanks again everyone, it adds to the enjoyment of my trip that you enjoyed my little writeup.